Two Day Cake

I always thought it would be a chocolate Betty Crocker smothered in chocolate tub icing and dotted with smarties kindof cake. You know, like your mom use to make when you were little.

But no. I made the mistake of mentioning to my gourmet cooking, foodie friends one night over dinner that I had never baked a cake and as such, was putting it on the 52 Firsts list. With horror, they quickly redirected my dreams of Betty towards the waiting arms of Brenda.

Brenda, Brenda, Brenda.... Brenda once took a day off work so she could have enough time to bake a 36 hour, 8 layer vanilla cake... She is also the woman who takes her vacation time to volunteer (after tenacious persistence) in Thomas Haas' kitchen... The man who made Michael Buble's wedding cake...just sayn'

So here I find myself having gone from pre-packaged chemical goodness cake to a two-day, from scratch apricot passion fruit compote, chocolate hazelnut mousse called "Le Rêve". Ahhhh oui!

I could write for days all the basic stuff I learned, like in French baking one does not use baking soda. No no. One seperates egg whites and whisks them up and then folds it into the rest of the batter to get ones cake to rise. Of course!

(Fold, don't stir. Fold.)

One must make their own pralines. What is "praline", exactly? No biggy. Melt the sugar but don't burn it...and whatever you do, don't touch it! It has that nasty habit of being sticky and at boiling temperature, good luck shaking the scorching heat off of you.... But it's tasty! Once safely out of harms reach, coat roasted nuts, cool, pulverize. Delicious!

Then there was gelatin leafs, chocolate tempering, glazes, mousses, passion fruit baumé and we haven't even started talking about assembly!

Assembly.... Carrrrrrrrrefully!

Assembled. 5 hours later and today's work is done! Into the freezer to set overnight. Tomorrow we decorate! 

Day 2: take cake out of deep freeze and pour on the glaze. Add dark alcohol syrop or coffee to give the top some visual interest and contrast. 

Remove metal cake moulds. Unwind the acetate and transfer to cake trays. Of course, you need to have these things... But then, we're at Cliff and Brenda's condo where the whole second bedroom is dedicated to food. Hundreds of cool cookbooks, a deep freezer, vacuum packer, huge format ingredients and cake trays and boxes! It's like a cooking wonderland! But I digress....

...Add chocolate squares to perimeter, a couple of decorative almonds et voilà!

Now time to eat! 

The perfect punctuation to a perfect gourmet meal of authentic homemade mole by Vancouver top food blogger Mijune @followMeFoodie and of course Brenda @mightyVanilla!  

Then there was cashew salsa and passion fruit red chocolate hearts by Cliff @tangledbones!

And the bottles of generously donated sparkling wine by @fresitacanada! 

Not a bad way to spend a weekend! Thanks to all for assisting and feeding and eating and drinking!